Judge Orders Processing|of Wikileaks Donations

(CN) – An Icelandic judge ordered major credit card companies to start processing WikiLeaks donations within two weeks or pay $6,200 a day in sanctions. Days after major newspapers reported on WikiLeaks-published U.S. State Department cables in late 2010, Amazon, PayPal and major credit card companies stopped processing donations for the whistleblowing website, cutting off its financial lifeblood. On Bastille Day 2011, WikiLeaks and its service provider Datacell sued Visa and Valitor hr, the Icelandic partner of Mastercard, in Reykjavik District Court, saying that the illegal “blockade” had cost them 95 percent of their donations. Founder Julian Assange called the court’s ruling a blow against economic censorship. “This is a significant victory against Washington’s attempt to silence WikiLeaks,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement. “We will not be silenced. Economic censorship is censorship. It is wrong. When it’s done outside of the rule of law its doubly wrong. One by one those involved in the attempted censorship of WikiLeaks will find themselves on the wrong side of history.” WikiLeaks also filed a complaint with the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission on the same day it filed the Icelandic suit, Reuters reported. The Commission’s decision is expected before the end of August, according to WikiLeaks. Visa did not immediately reply to a request for comment.